


The Children of the Gods

by DeadricDaughter19



Series: The Mortal and Divine [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate History, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Idealistic World, Amnesia, Artistic Liberties, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Background Relationships, Big brother Luke Castellan, Book 1: The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson), Bullying, Camp Half-Blood is Called Camp Olympus in This, Canon Compliant Betrayal, Canon Gay Character, Canon LGBTQ Character, Canon LGBTQ Male Character, Canon Rewrite, Canon Temporary Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Chapters Will Be Posted As They're Written, Character Death, Character With Intrusive Thoughts, Characters with Disfigurement, Children of Aphrodite Having More Nuance From the Start, Curses, Deliberate Mythological Inaccuracies, Demigod Scent, Demigod abilities, Disfigured POV Character, Disfigurement, Divine Curses, Dyslexia, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Familial Relationships, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gay Characters, Gen, Gods Don't Have DNA in the Same Sense as Humans, Gods Have a Different Definition of Family to Humans, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Amnesia, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Abuse, Inaccurate to real life, Luke Castellan is a Major Bastard in This, MAIN CHARACTERS ARE TWELVE YEARS OLD PEOPLE, Magic, Major Original Character(s), Mild Annabeth Chase Bashing, Mild Canon Compliance, Minor Bully Character(s), Minor Character Death, Mystery, Mythological Inaccuracies, Mythology - Freeform, Natural Battle Reflexes, Natural Disasters, Nico di Angelo & Percy Jackson Friendship, Nico di Angelo was Taken from the Lotus Hotel Much Earlier, No Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Non-Canon LGBTQ Characters, Non-Graphic Descriptions of Wounds, Non-Graphic Violence, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Female Character, POV First Person, POV Original Character, Percy Jackson & Clarisse La Rue Friendship, Percy Jackson Series Rewrite, Percy Jackson has a Twin, Place Name Changes, Platonic Relationships, Poison, Poisoning, Slow To Update, Someone Beta Read Like a Third of It, Tags May Change, Temporary Character Death, The Mist - Freeform, at least in the sense of civil rights and the mortal part of the world, background romantic relationships, keep that in mind, read the tags, sorta - Freeform, taking liberties with mythology
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28099476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeadricDaughter19/pseuds/DeadricDaughter19
Summary: Lana's life was already hell before the whole demigod thing came into the picture—then she learns that she and her twin brother, despite having literally just learned that demigods and gods actually exist, are technically illegally alive. Something she didn't even know was possible. Add in Hades kidnapping their mother, Zeus accusing them of having stolen his precious lightning bolt, and a prophecy that warns of a friend who'll betray her and her brother—well, things look bleak. At least they have the chance to actually get some training in before the Summer Solstice deadline, even if that means less time to actually look for the damn thing and figure out what has Hades trying to lure them to the Underworld if he is supposed to have the Bolt.
Relationships: Camp Half-Blood Campers & Chiron (Percy Jackson), Camp Half-Blood Campers & Dionysus, Charles Beckendorf & Lana Jackson (OC), Charles Beckendorf & Nico di Angelo, Charles Beckendorf & Percy Jackson, Lana Jackson (OC) & Clarisse La Rue, Lana Jackson (OC) & Gabe Ugliano, Lana Jackson (OC) & Grover Underwood, Lana Jackson (OC) & Nico di Angelo, Lana Jackson (OC) & Sally Jackson, Nico di Angelo & Grover Underwood, Nico di Angelo & Percy Jackson, Percy Jackson & Clarisse La Rue, Percy Jackson & Gabe Ugliano, Percy Jackson & Grover Underwood, Percy Jackson & Lana Jackson (OC), Percy Jackson & Sally Jackson, Sally Jackson/Gabe Ugliano, Silena Beauregard & Charles Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard & Clarisse la Rue, Silena Beauregard & Lana Jackson (OC), Silena Beauregard & Nico di Angelo, Silena Beauregard & Percy Jackson
Series: The Mortal and Divine [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2058597
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	The Children of the Gods

**Author's Note:**

> Hello people of the internet, and welcome to my rewrite of the Percy Jackson series! This will be completely set in the POV of Percy's twin sister, Lana Jackson. Now, first and foremost, THIS WILL NOT BE ACCURATE TO REAL-LIFE OR THE PERIOD OF TIME IT WAS SET IN, I AM TAKING MASSIVE LIBERTIES. I am also taking liberties with Greek Mythology, apply my own understanding and interpretation to it! I WILL NOT BE USING ALL THE SAME VERSIONS OF MYTH AS RIORAND DID, NOR DO I CLAIM THAT THIS WILL HAVE 100% ACCURACE WHEN THAT IS LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE. There will be MASSIVE canon divergencies while keep the same basic questline plots as the original. PLEASE READ THE TAGS, THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING TO KEEP AN EYE ON THEM.  
> THE POV CHARACTER IS A BIROMANTIC, HOMOSEXUAL GIRL, SO IF YOU TAKE ISSUE WITH THAT, GO NO FURTHER.  
> In regards to Intrusive Thoughts, I will be researching them as best that I can so that I can handle the topic with the right nuance and care it deserves. If you experience Intrusive Thoughts yourself and have advice for me on how to handle it, that would be very much appreciated! I only ask that you remain civil!
> 
> I will be updating this work at my own pace, posting the chapters as they are written. Please keep that in mind.

My name is Lana Jackson, and I'm writing this as the result of an apparently 'needed' intervention. Something about not bottling emotions and trauma or something like that. Since I refuse to talk to anyone about what's happened to me in my life, I'm supposed to just…write it out. Mr. D said something about it also being a good way to introduce newbies into our way of life.

At the time of writing this, I've just turned seventeen years old—a pretty good age for a Greek-raised demigod to reach. Particularly one like me. So, this is going to be your only disclaimer going forwards: I won't sugar coat shit for any of you. If you're going to live this life, then you need to be aware of the absolute brutality of the shit us few remaining older demigods went through on the Greek side of things. Being a demigod isn't all fun and games, and it's not going to instantly get you fame. Especially not with mortals—mortals hardly are aware of us. Sure, there are plenty of pagans left in the world—but very few actually interact with our world anymore. Being a demigod? It's awful, terrifying, and you're almost certainly going to die in some painful, nasty way at the hands of a monster—or even in an accident. It certainly won't be of old age, not if you're Greek. If you're Roman, you have significantly better chances—but not by a whole lot unless you reach adulthood.

Admittedly, my life was already hell prior to learning I was a demigod. By the time I learned I was a demigod at the age of twelve, I'd been in my sixth school in just as many years, for example. I'd gone to boarding school after boarding school along with my twin brother, Percy, though back then I didn't know how Mom had the money for it. She was a high-school dropout who worked at this tiny candy store for just a few dollars above minimum wage and goodness knows that my drunkard step-dad did jack-all to help us out. Bastard gambled away every last dime he earned of his own job, and spent the pennies on beer.

I learned I was a demigod on May 17th, 2006 during a school field trip. At the time, I was attending this private school for 'troubled children' called Yancy Academy in upstate New York. Were my brother and I troubled children? In a sense, I suppose, considering it _was_ our sixth school in six years. Honestly, I could pick any example from our short lives to prove it—but that's not important right now. No, we're talking about May 17th and the Latin field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we were going to look at Ancient Greek and Roman statues, pottery, and the like. I didn't have many hopes for the field trip, considering I both hated them, things usually went wrong on field trips when it came to Percy and I, and it was a field trip with only two chaperones to _thirty_ rowdy mental-case delinquent middle schoolers.

When I say things usually went wrong on field trips for me and Percy—I mean it. There was this one military school we went to for fourth-grade that took a field trip to the Saratoga Battlefield, you see. Now, Percy claims that he wasn't aiming for the bus when he had that accident with a revolutionary war cannon—not that he can tell me what he _was_ aiming for, really—and we got expelled. Then, in fifth grade, our class took this tour at SeaWorld. It was backstage stuff with feeding some sharks—and, well, I may have been distracted by all the talking I was hearing and so I missed which lever I was supposed to pull. This may or may not have resulted in an unplanned swim. I only got away with a month of in-school suspension because no one was seriously hurt.

All in all, the only hope I had was that this wouldn’t be a boring field trip even before things went wrong—after all, Mr. Brunner was the trip’s leader as the Latin Teacher. Mr. Brunner was one of those middle-aged guys who didn’t look like they’d be very interesting or cool—thinning brown hair, this old tweed jacket that smelled of coffee, that kind of thing—but he had these eyes, like he’d seen a thousand years pass and the world change. He was a paraplegic and his wheelchair was one of those cool motorized ones that had an attached tabletop to it. He was the only teacher at Yancy whose class wasn’t made up of a monotone lecture that made you want to sleep and who told jokes in class. Sometimes he even let us play games to learn the subject instead of just doing homework, like he knew he was teaching at least two ADHD prone kids who couldn’t simply sit still like most teachers wanted.

Now, I could start when things really went wrong from here—but I won’t. I think that I’ll start with the school bus, where I can explain the other players. You see, it wasn’t exactly easy to fit thirty mental case kids plus two teachers on a yellow school bus—and it really only worked because four of us sat on the same seat.

Percy and I were small kids, scrawny and boney. We were probably a bit underweight, really, though you wouldn’t really notice since we both wore non-form fitting clothes. However we weren’t the smallest kids in the school—no, that honor went to our first friend at Yancy Academy who entered school about a week after Christmas, Nico di Angelo. Nico wasn’t just scrawny, he was short for a twelve-year-old. Like Percy, he had inky black hair, though his seemed somehow...darker than Percy’s. He was Italian, though his accent wasn’t really all that pronounced or noticeable unless he was struggling with a word. Sometimes he said the Italian equivalent of a word when he was having trouble, so Percy and I had taken up learning Italian from him when we could to help with that. We were already learning Latin anyways, so it wasn’t much of a big deal.

Nico had the window seat on the bus, with Percy sitting right next to him. The two were so inseparable that I sometimes teased Percy, suggesting he had a crush on Nico. Percy always spluttered at me when I did that, while I would just laugh. Between Percy and I was our other, more recent friend Grover Underwood, who was just as scrawny as the rest of us. We’d known him all school year, watching his back since he was a huge bully target, but we hadn’t really properly befriended him until I got suspension for getting into a fist fight with his main bully a month after Christmas, Nancy Bobofit.

Grover was kind of an easy target, despite the fact Percy and I were convinced he had to have been held back several grades and couldn’t possibly be twelve. Grover always avoided our questioning when we asked. Grover had brown hair, like I did although his was a darker shade, and the wispy starting of a beard plus acne. He had crutches with him, since he had this weird muscular disease in his legs that he never mentioned the name of to the rest of us. I was always jealous of the fact he would have a note excusing him from P.E. for the rest of his life and no one would get on him for ‘not exercising enough’.

Now, Nancy is the last player that’s a kid in this equation. She was sitting in the seat behind us, smirking as she threw pieces of her peanut butter and ketchup (yes, you read that right, peanut butter and _ketchup_ ) sandwich at the back of Grover’s head. She was a redhead with brown eyes and fair skin, who would’ve been pretty if not for the fact her freckles made her look like someone had spray painted her face with liquid Cheetos. I hadn’t even realized that such a color existed and it didn’t look particularly flattering on Nancy. It was part of why I would call the annoying little shit Cheeto-face. That never failed to make her mad and try to start a fight.

The first fight Nancy and I got into was when she had snidely asked if Percy was adopted since she had seen our mom. To Nancy, apparently Percy and I didn’t look much alike. Sure, I had darker skin than Percy, the kind that someone usually got from being out in the sun for days on end that I was born with, and my eyes were a dark ocean blue. The kind of blue, according to Mom, that one found deep down, where the light of the sun barely reached. Mom told me not to worry about it, that it was a recessive gene, back then. I know the real reason my eyes differ from her and Percy’s now, but it, back then, was a touchy subject that I looked so different. Mom had never said it out loud, but I’d always assumed that I looked the most like Dad and that Percy just got his hair and eyes. I know now that, that isn’t quite true and that Nancy was right—between me and Percy, I did look more like Mom than he did.

Admittedly, Nico had become our friend because of Nancy too. Nancy had insisted that Nico was a freak because his eyes were black—a color I had admittedly been unaware of being an eye color until Nico came along, but I’d thought it was cool rather than freaky. Nancy learned fast not to pick on Nico, though, since he’d immediately squared up to fight her and she’d backed off quick at that. Probably because, like Percy, Nico looked scary with a glare. Before Nico, I hadn’t really known that anyone other than Percy could have such a ferocious ‘I’ll-kill-you’ glare.

Where was I? Right, Nancy pelting the back of Grover’s head with her odd sandwich choice. Percy was starting to get agitated the more Nancy did it, though Grover was trying to keep him calm.

“I’m going to kill her,” Percy mumbled, glaring at the back of the seat in front of us.

“Wouldn’t recommend it, Perce,” Nico dryly answered him. “The teach’ from hell is just two seats back on the opposite side. She’ll see.”

“Besides—I’m fine,” added Grover, shifting lightly. “I like peanut butter. Ketchup isn’t all that bad either.”

“In your _hair_?” I asked incredulously, raising a brow at Grover.

His ears turned pink as he blushed, almost pouting at me.

“Lana,” he hissed. “I’m trying here, okay? Besides, it really isn’t a big deal!”

“Your hair is going to feel and smell disgusting by the time this whole venture is over,” deadpanned Nico, “but it isn’t a big deal.”

Grover just flushed more, pouting at us both now. He muttered about us being mean and enabling Percy, while I just twisted in my seat to give Nancy the stink-eye. As a result, her next toss of sandwich bit almost got into my eye.

“That’s it,” Percy hissed, moving to stand.

Immediately, Nico twisted away from the window to help Grover keep Percy in place.

“Percy, don’t!” Nico snapped, trying to keep his voice low. “You know what’ll happen if you do anything! You too, Lana.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled as I twisted back and sat down, rubbing my eye. The brat had almost hit me in the eye that was scarred, my left eye.

“ _Especially_ if you’re caught by Mrs. Dodds,” Grover said warningly, glancing between the three of us meaningfully.

I snorted sourly, knowing that well enough. Mrs. Dodds was another player in this whole thing. She was the substitute math teacher who showed up not long after Christmas, when our last teacher had a nervous breakdown and needed to take leave for the rest of the year. She was a mean little old lady, probably in her fifties. Despite that, she definitely looked like the type who’d ride a Harley into your stuff just to destroy your things. She was apparently from Georgia, though her accent suggested somewhere further south than that with a hint of somewhere from the general area of the Middle East. She had beady brown eyes that looked almost red in some light, often having a look that would give me shivers.

I’d once commented to Grover at lunch after spending the previous night in detention with her, where she’d forced me to erase any markings from the hardback math books until after midnight, that she was a monster. Grover had gotten this odd, almost fearful look in his eyes while he’d looked at me with a seriousness I’d never seen from him before.

“Yes, she is,” he’d agreed, his tone having given me pause.

I didn’t often think about it, but then on the bus, I did. Grover’s meaningful look had hints of fear to it, like he was worried that something worse than the principal's promise of death by in-school suspension would happen to us if Percy or I got in trouble by Mrs. Dodds this time. I’d tried to quickly put it out of my mind, trying to assure myself that I was imagining things. After all, for all her awfulness, Mrs. Dodds wasn’t anything like my step-father. I tried not to think about how bad my step-father was as we finally pulled up to the museum a few moments later, finally pulling my hand away from my eye and the jagged scar that started about an inch above my eyebrow and went down, over my eye, to just past halfway down my cheek.

Sometimes, looking back, I wish Percy had decked Nancy then and there. Sometimes, I think six more years of dealing with my step-father would’ve been worth it to not go through everything else. Then I remember everything that the years gained me, and I banish those thoughts from my mind. I wouldn’t give up the good just because of the bad.

Strangely, we didn’t get a tour guide. Rather, Mr. Brunner led us around the museum and showed us the different artefacts, telling us about them himself. As if he had once worked here before or was just completely familiar with every last object. Unfortunately for me and my company, Nancy stuck close to us. She was well aware that she was protected by Mrs. Dodds, who kept giving me, Nico, Percy, and Grover the stink eye. Ever since her arrival, we were devil spawn while Nancy was an angel. I hated it, but there was nothing I could really do about it.

I was trying to listen, since everything was so fascinating. Mr. Brunner just...had this way of talking that made anything sound interesting, and amazing ways of engaging you. Like with this collection of Greek armor that he owned, when he talked about it he would pass it around and let us actually see and feel what he was talking about. Then there was when he had us memorize some famous Greek and Roman figures, as well as their mother and who they worshiped—he held tournaments where he’d let us hold his bronze sword, a medium length xiphos (a double edged, one-handed Greek sword) with a leaf-shaped blade, and run up to the blackboard to tap the sword to the board. It was a game that I wouldn’t have thought fun until after I played it the first time for myself.

Unfortunately, the kids around me were all whispering to each other. Nancy was, unfortunately, one of the louder ones. In particular, she was snickering to her friends over one of the naked statues nearby, even as Mr. Brunner was telling us about stelae and what they were used for. This one in particular was the grave marker of a little girl, one about our age. It was very sorrowful that such a young child had died and I was growing more and more irritated that Nancy clearly wasn’t bothered. The stele in particular was of incredible craftsmanship, so clearly someone had loved the little girl a lot, and was huge. It was maybe around thirteen feet tall, topped with a statue of a sphinx, and had tons of carvings other than that of the little girl herself on it.

As it was, before I could snap at Nancy to be quiet, Percy beat me to it.

“Will you _shut up_?” he snapped at Nancy, glaring at her.

Unfortunately, he said it a bit loudly. The other kids laughed and I felt embarrassed on my twin’s behalf, my face just as red as his now was.

“Did you have a comment, Mr. Jackson?” Mr. Brunner asked, turning his attention to us.

Percy managed to become even redder at that as he replied, “No, sir.”

Mr. Brunner was probably the only teacher Percy showed an ounce of respect to and called ‘sir’ regularly. I had a feeling that it probably had to do with those tournaments since Mr. Brunner would allow us to dress up with him in Greek or Roman armor and would shout out ‘what ho!’ when starting the tournament. That and he didn’t treat me or Percy like we were stupid—he expected us to keep up with the class, to ask for help when we needed it, and even checked to be sure that we were doing fine. He was the only teacher we asked for help from, since he made us feel so human and didn’t dismiss our ADHD, or Percy’s bad dyslexia, as us being ‘lazy’.

Mr. Brunner then pointed to one of the pictures and, to take attention off of my brother, turned to me.

“Miss Jackson,” he said, “could you tell us what this carving is of?”

I looked at the stele and the carving he was pointing at, recognizing it immediately. I knew Percy would’ve struggled to guess it himself had he been asked, though I do think he knew this one too but he may have forgotten in the wave of his embarrassment.

“That’s the titan king, Kronos, eating his kids,” I said. Even before taking Mr. Brunner’s Latin class, I had always had an interest in Greek and Roman mythology. Mostly Greek, though, since I felt like Romans shouldn’t have just changed the names of the myths they adopted after conquering Greece. “Well, five of his kids that is. He didn’t eat the youngest of them, Zeus.”

“Correct, Miss Jackson,” Mr. Brunner smiled. “Mr. Jackson, do you know why Kronos did this?”

“Erm,” Percy glanced at me, but I just smiled apologetically at this. I watched as he put his thinking face on, nose scrunching up the way it usually did. “Well, like Lana said, Kronos was the Titan King and he didn’t trust his kids, the gods…”

“Do you know why?” Mr. Brunner prompted my brother, clearly wanting a bit of a more detailed explanation than that.

“Well… He was paranoid,” Percy frowned, thinking harder. “Because his kids were better looking, I think, than the titans? That’s part of why his kids were referred to as gods rather than titans. Oh! But he was also paranoid because when he overthrew his own father, the primordial...Ouranos? Uranus? His father warned Kronos that one day, his own kids would overthrow him.”

“Correct, Mr. Jackson. Ouranos and Uranus are both correct, though Ouranos would be the Greek while Uranus is anglicized,” Mr. Brunner then turned to Nico. “Now, Mr. di Angelo, why didn’t Kronos eat the infant Zeus?”

Nico perked up immediately at this, eyes shining. Like me, Nico was fascinated by Greek mythology—but really only because of this card game he played called Mythomagic. I rolled my eyes good naturedly, continuing to listen even though I already knew all of this.

“The queen, Rhea, had switched baby Zeus for a rock,” said Nico, “and hid away Zeus on a mountain in Crete, I think. There’s a lot of different myths, so sometimes he’s raised by a goat or a nymph who tends goats, or just a group of nymphs. One of the most common names used is Amaltheia, either for one of the nymphs or for the goat.”

Before Nico could continue or Mr. Brunner could say something to prevent a Nico Spiel, I heard Nancy behind me.

“Like we’re going to use this in real life,” she muttered to one of her friends. “What job application is going to ask us ‘why did Kronos eat his kids?’”

I glared back at her, but didn’t get my chance to say anything.

“To paraphrase Miss Bobofit’s _excellent_ question,” Mr. Brunner said, making me smirk at the now red-faced Nancy, “why does this matter in real life? Mr. Jackson, Mr. di Angelo?”

“Busted,” Grover snickered into his hand.

Mr. Brunner was probably the only teacher who ever caught Nancy doing anything wrong, really, though I wished he’d asked anyone else this question. I didn’t even know the answer, so I had my doubts that Nico or Percy would know. Don’t get me wrong—my boys were smart, but they could be rather obtuse at times.

“Erm, I’m afraid I don’t really know,” Nico confessed, correctly guessing that now wasn’t the time to make a joke about card games.

“I don’t know either,” Percy shook his head, looking down a bit. He hated disappointing Mr. Brunner.

“Miss Jackson?” I swallowed when he turned to me, looking me in the eyes with that intense gaze.

“Um,” I cast around my brain, trying to come up with an answer. “Well… Considering that Kronos’ actions eventually resulted in Zeus growing up to return for his siblings, making Kronos barf up the other five kids in the opposite order of their birth and eating—”

“—such a disgusting topic—” someone behind me, towards the back of the kids, muttered.

“—after which the gods then fought a ten-year long war, which the gods won,” I continued without stopping for the person who had talked, since Mr. Brunner didn’t move to stop me, “It’s probably a cautionary tale about paranoia and letting yourself become obsessed with something that you don’t know for sure will come true. Greek mythology is chocked full of myths surrounding a self-fulling prophecy, where the prophecy only came true because the subject of it allowed it to consume their minds, did everything they could to stop it, and thus ended up meeting the criteria that would cause it to come true.”

“A very good answer Miss Jackson,” Mr. Brunner smiled at me, though he still seemed mildly disappointed for a reason I couldn’t quite grasp. “Full credit, you three.”

“Mr. Brunner?” someone from behind me asked, “how exactly _did_ the king of the gods get Kronos to...um...free his siblings? That’s something that’s always confused me.”

“Ah, another excellent question,” Mr. Brunner turned his attention to the person who asked. “Kronos was given by Zeus a mixture of mustard and wine, which he was able to do as Zeus had taken up the uncover position of cupbearer, which is what caused Kronos to disgorge his other five children. They grew up, undigested, due to being immortals as their father and mother were. Kronos was finally defeated when the gods managed to chop him up with his own scythe, as he had done to his father before him, and scattered his remains into Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. Now, on that note, it is time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, if you would lead us back outside?”

The beady-eyed, leather jacket-clad teacher nodded sharply, turning. Everyone began following her, some kids holding their stomachs and others already acting life doofuses and shoving each other. Before I or my brother and friends could follow, Mr. Brunner spoke again.

“Mr. Jackson, Mr. di Angelo?”

I hesitated, glancing back at my resigned brother and friend.

“Go on Grover, Lana,” Percy said. “Don’t wait on us.”

“Alright,” I nodded, and headed out with Grover.

Despite what Percy said, I waited on the steps for him and Nico. When they came out, I perked up and jumped up, turning to them. “Detention?”

“Nah,” Percy shook his head with a grin. “Not from Mr. Brunner.”

“Not sure what he expects from us, though,” Nico muttered through a mouthful of Doritos. I blinked, having not realized he’d had his lunch with him the whole time. “He pushes us so hard, like he expects us to keep up with you Lana. Sure, I keep up better than Percy but—”

“We still have a collective C- average streak,” Percy said glumly. “Besides, he really could let up anyways. We’re not geniuses.”

I pursed my lips and looked away, not really sure what to say to that. Foot traffic around fifth avenue wasn’t as heavy as it probably usually was, given the huge storm brewing just over our heads with the low sound of thunder. I didn’t spot any lightning as we moved over to the fountain to sit down, me and Grover between Percy and Nico this time. I thought that maybe it was Climate Change or something, seeing as things had been weird since Christmas. All across New York state, there’d been a sudden barrage of weather from snowstorms to flooding to lightning-caused wildfires. I wouldn’t have been surprised if an out-of-season hurricane had blown in, really, with everything else occurring.

Nobody else seemed to notice the brewing storm. Some of the guys were trying to hit pigeons with Lunchables crackers, at which I glared at them. Those poor animals! Unfortunately, I knew I couldn’t really do anything since they’d stop by time I got over to Mr. Brunner. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket some poor woman’s purse, and naturally Mrs. Dodds was completely oblivious to everything.

As we ate, Percy sharing some of his food with Grover, I watched the cabs that would pass, heading down Fifth. We weren’t all that far from home—the apartment was maybe a few blocks uptown from here. I missed Mom, though probably not as much as Percy. We hadn’t seen her since Christmas. If I had been even an ounce more impulsive than I usually was, I would have jumped in a cab and headed home. I wanted to go home, knowing she’d welcome me back with open arms, a hug, and maybe I’d even tell her. Tell her about the nights where I lay in bed, unable to sleep because I couldn’t get the image of Nancy Bobofit laying on her bead, bloody with a slit throat, dead, out of my mind.

I’d finally tell her all the terrifying thoughts I would get suddenly in the middle of class, the violent and graphic images that kept coming back to my mind. Maybe I’d finally get a therapist—then I remembered how much a therapist could cost and I shut that line of thinking down. Besides, as glad as she’d be to see me, to have me finally open up to her, she’d be disappointed. She’d want me to come back to school, to stay close to my brother, and to try harder. It didn’t matter to her that this was our sixth school in six years, or that Percy and I were unlikely to be allowed back next year. I could picture it so vividly in my mind, that sad look she’d give me for trying to quit. She wanted better for me and Percy, for us to at least graduate high school one day, unlike her.

Shaking my head, I turned to talk to Nico about Mythomagic since I did have some passing interest in the card game, even if I doubted I’d ever be able to afford to buy a single card. Not that I was about to tell Nico that, I didn’t need him or Grover feeling sorry for me or Percy. Or any questions about how Mom kept affording to send me and Percy off to boarding schools, since the two knew all about how many schools we’d been through. Nico was just telling me about Poseidon’s stats and how they were complimented by his wife, Amphitrite’s, stats when Nancy came over with her annoying friends.

She dumped what remained of her lunch in Grover’s lap, her lips pulled back in a grin to reveal her disgusting yellowed teeth.

“Oops,” she said mockingly at her, my own facing going red with anger.

Before Nico or Grover could stop me, I jumped up and pulled my fist back, ready to knock the brat out. I blinked just before I went to swing forward, a wave roaring in my ears. I froze when, suddenly, Nancy wasn’t in front of me anymore. I stared dumbly at the spot where she’d just been, her friends looking just as stupefied as me.

“Percy pushed me!” Nancy shrieked, causing me to whirl around and stare in shock.

“—did you see—”

“—holy shi—”

“—like the water just—”

I didn’t have the slightest clue how Nancy had ended up in the fountain, and it looked like Percy, Grover, and Nico didn’t either. We just stared at her, shocked, even as Mrs. Dodds suddenly materialized next to us, cackling. Percy hadn’t touched her, I was absolutely certain of that. Yet Nancy wouldn’t stop wailing about how Percy had pushed her. Grover quickly tried to claim it was him, Nico right behind him, but Mrs. Dodds wouldn’t hear it.

“Now Honey—” Mrs. Dodds said, a sickeningly sweet smile on her face, as if she’d just won some sort of prize.

“I know, I know,” Percy grumbled, looking annoyed. “A month erasing workbooks.”

I knew immediately by the change of expression on her face that Percy should’ve kept his mouth shut.

“Come with me,” she suddenly snapped.

“Mrs. Dodds—” I tried, stepping forward. I _had_ been about to deck Nancy…

“Stay. Here,” she snapped, fixing me with a glare that made me nod immediately, sitting down quickly as Nancy climbed out of the fountain, stumbling off with her friends and grumbling.

I watched Mrs. Dodds leave, my brother following with his head down. I turned to Grover after a moment, seeing the fear on his face and how he kept glancing over at Mr. Brunner, as if trying to catch the teacher’s eye.

“Nico, you should take Grover to the bathroom,” I said to him. “I’ll tell Mr. Brunner, okay?”

“Yeah, alright,” Nico agreed.

“But—” Grover immediately protested, but I fixed him with an immediate ‘you-listen-here-you-little-shit’ stare. He quieted.

“You’re going to go clean up. I’ll tell Mr. Brunner both about you going to do that with Nico’s help and that Percy got in trouble for allegedly pushing Percy.”

Grover hesitated, before nodding and looking upset, as if something bad was about to happen and he couldn’t stop it. I chose not to think about it as I turned towards Mr. Brunner. He was sitting just on the other side of the walkway, a red umbrella propped up from the back of wheelchair as he ate some celery and ready from some paperback novella I didn’t recognize. I wet my lips, feeling suddenly nervous as I approached. Grover’s expression wouldn’t leave my mind.

“Mr. Brunner—”

He looked up at me, a smile on his lips. His eyes flickered, briefly, to where I had been sitting with Percy and our friends, and he froze. Before I could finish what I was going to say, he interrupted me.

“Miss Jackson, where are your brother and friends?” he asked, a sudden urgency in his voice as his eyes flickered around.

Looking for Mrs. Dodds, my mind supplied though I don’t know why. “Actually, sir, that’s what I was about to say,” I continued, ignoring my own now-mounting fear. “Nancy dumped what remained of her lunch onto Grover’s lap, so Nico took him to the bathroom to get cleaned up.”

“And Percy?” he asked. “Is Mrs. Dodds with him?”

Definitely fear in the old teacher’s voice, I realized as I answered him, “Err, yeah. Nancy says he pushed her into the fountain. I mean, she was in the fountain, but I didn’t see Percy push her, but Mrs. Dodds took her side and took Percy—”

“ _Alone_?” Mr. Brunner demanded, reaching into his coat pocket.

“Yes,” I said, hesitant now. “Mr. Brunner...what’s wrong? She just took Percy to give him a talk and buy Nancy a new shirt...right?”

“Stay here,” he commanded me as he took my hand and clasped something into it. “Keep this close. If you feel in danger, pull off this charm here. You took archery lessons in your fourth, right?”

“I, um, did?” I was baffled, confused, as I looked down at my hand. He had pointed to a yellowish tan bow charm on the charm bracelet he’d handed me. “Mr. Brunner, what—?”

I looked up, but he’d already wheeled off. How was a charm from a bracelet supposed to help me if I ended up in trouble? How’d he know I’d taken archery in my fourth, at that military school? I felt almost dizzy with the questions, but I put the charm bracelet on so I wouldn’t lose it and wandered back towards the fountain to clean up what I could of the garbage. Mom had a strict no-littering policy and made sure Percy and I followed it, even if our step-dad didn’t. When I was done, I sat down on a non-dirty, dry spot of the fountain and my leg started bouncing. I kept checking the top of the stairs.

Five minutes, no one had returned yet.

Ten minutes, and still no one. Not even Nico and Grover.

Fifteen minutes and I knew that something was wrong, though no one else seemed to notice anything. I bit my lip as I stood up and took the stairs two by two, needing to know that things were alright. That Mr. Brunner and Grover had overreacted. I checked the bathrooms first, but couldn’t find Grover or Nico. I asked four men who came in and out, but they all shook their heads at me. Worried, I turned to go look around for them.

“Are you lost, dearie?” a voice asked, slick with a sweetness that made me freeze.

Slowly, I turned to see a woman who looked too much like Mrs. Dodds to be a coincidence standing there, though she looked much younger. She was smiling down at me with one of those really fake smiles that told you the person was bad news. I forced myself to smile back nervously at the woman. If she wasn’t a threat, then Percy wasn’t selling candy out of his dorm room illegally. I slowly backed away, hands behind my back so I could reach the charms and silently prayed that Mr. Brunner hadn’t been pulling my leg about the charm.

“Um, not really, ma’am. I’m just...just searching for my friends and my brother. I got separated from them after two went to the bathroom and one went to go talk to one of our teachers…”

Lesson one of lying effectively—mix a little bit of truth in it so that you sound believable.

The woman advanced for every step back I took, still smiling at me with that fake smile as she spoke, “Is that so, dearie? Why don’t I help you look?”

My hands finally found the bow charm, having run over a shield charm and a ward charm, as well as a charm I didn’t recognize. I enclosed my fingers around it, ready to tug it off any second.

“Um, that won’t be necessary,” I declined, giving her a once over. She was dressed like an employee, but something about her told me she wasn’t actually one. Why was the museum suddenly so empty? Where was everyone? “I’ll be fine on my own, ma’am.”

I should have listened to Mr. Brunner. I should have stayed outside, with the group. I may have been twelve, but how could I have been so stupid?

“I must insist, dearie,” the woman all but purred at me, her brown eyes looking almost red as a bit of sunlight hit her face just so.

My breath caught in my throat as I realized, no. Her eyes weren’t brown. They _actually_ were red and were starting to glow. It wasn’t a trick of the lighting, like how my mom’s eyes changed shades of blue depending on the lighting. I was sure my fear showed on my face, as her fake smile grew into a terrifying grin full of sharp-looking teeth.

“Now, now, dearie,” the woman said, almost softly. “Did you really think you could fool my dear sister forever? Did you and that no-good brother of yours really think you could get away with it, dearie?”

“Wh—wha—?” I had no idea what she was talking about. Get away with _what_?

“Do not lie to me, Atalanta Jackson,” the woman warned me, still grinning ferally. Her grin almost seemed to grow at my shocked flinch from hearing this _stranger_ say my full first name, especially since she shouldn’t have known my nickname while there was the possibility she’d overheard Mr. Brunner say my last name. “Hades will have your soul one way or another, dearie, but it’ll hurt less if you confess. Less suffering if you just admit your wrongdoing.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I finally cried, unable to stand the confusion and fear coupled together. It was like staring down my step-father after he’d had a victory round of drinking after winning a poker game. It was terrifying and made my jagged scar burn with phantom pain.

The woman’s glowing eyes hardened, a sneer slowly passing onto her face. It seemed like her face had elongated a bit, but that wasn’t possible, was it? “So that’s how you want to play it, godling? You take me, Megaera, for a fool?”

Megaera? The only information that name conjured was one of three actually named among the Erinyes, or Furies, from Greco-Roman mythology. It wasn’t a common name in the modern day by any stretch and, somehow, I had a hunch that it was no coincidence that I was at the Museum to look at Greco-Roman stuff with my Latin class when she appeared. Immediately I pulled the charm, which came freely as if all that held it in place was a magnet. There was a sudden weight on my shoulder and a look of shock briefly passed over Megaera’s face, while I instinctively reached for the arrows I knew were now slung over my back. I brandished the bow, nocking an arrow much easier than I expected to.

“St-stay back,” I warned her, shaking. “Leave me alone. I-I’m not afraid to use this.”

I was, actually, but I wasn’t about to tell Megaera that. My heart was pounding so hard that I could hear it, and I was shivering pretty badly too. The terror running through me brought back memories of the last time I’d felt so terrified, brought me back to being seven years old with the broken glass of a beer bottle that I’d knocked over being pressed to my face, the angry eyes and sneering face of my step-father in my mind—

Megaera lunged suddenly, jarring me back to reality as I reacted. I let the arrow go, immediately scrambling to dodge Megaera as she somehow moved mid-air to dodge the arrow. I was set off running, knowing I couldn’t win against her in a fair fight. Glancing over my shoulder at the sudden odd sound of wings, my eyes widened when I saw what was pursuing me. Megaera had grown bat-like wings and an overall more bat-like appearance, with long talons and her eyes glowing not unlike embers. Quickly, I looked back the way I was running and put on a burst of speed, turning the first corner I found.

The empty hallways that echoed, the sound of the monster behind me, and the burning of my lungs as I ran all made me feel as if I was in some cheap horror movie. Only the feel of the bow in my hands kept me grounded. I glanced down at it, blinking as I registered that I was not holding the yellowish tan bow that I had expected from the charm’s look. No, the bow that curved into the dip where the leather grip was, was made of some stone substance that my mind quickly supplied the name of despite me never seeing it before: coquina. A natural ‘sea cement’ of sorts that was so durable that it was cannon-resistant. Confused as to how I knew this, I focused once more on the hall ahead of me, praying for a place to hide long enough to regain my bearings.

Behind me, my prayers were semi-answered as I heard Megaera yelp before snarling. The flapping got further away and I swiftly turned a corner and found a monument to hide behind, heart pounding. I collapsed, breathing heavily, though I tried to keep it slow and deep rather than fast and quick. I gulped down air as I reached into the quiver, knowing I had to be ready for a confrontation. I looked at the arrow I pulled out this time, blinking as I registered that the head of it was silver—that the whole thing was silver, actually. The feathers felt like real feathers...but the rest of it felt like metal. Was it metal? Actual silver? I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure that I _wanted_ to know. As I knocked the arrow, I realized that the string of the bow shimmered a bit in the light, as if it was made of silver too—though it didn’t feel like it.

I didn’t know what to think of the fact that I was sitting in a museum, hiding behind one of the middle-of-the-floor displays from an _actual_ Erinys, and attempting to wield a blue-green bow with a silver string and silver embeddings, knocked with a silver arrow. It was insanity and I was definitely panicking, even as I tried to stay quiet and listen for Megaera. My eyes were focused on the bow as I listened, my eyes eventually resting upon a name that I had not noticed before, engraved in silver, on the bow. Roufíchtra. Ancient Greek. Whirlpool. My mind processed it so fast that I barely had time to register that I’d read and understood _Ancient fucking Greek_ perfectly and without missing a beat.

“Somnias,” I muttered. “This whole situation is insane and _cannot_ be anything more than either a weird day dream or a very vivid hallucination.”

I wasn’t entirely sure I could handle it if it wasn’t. Still, I forced myself to take the calming kind of deep breath, peeking out since it was still silent. I didn’t see anyone, but I was still scared to move. Slowly I got up, chewing my lip softly as I kept the bow at the ready. Roufíchtra weighed maybe a pound, maybe two, though it was hardly the heaviest thing I’d had to carry around for any amount of time (Mr. Brunner’s sword weighed somewhere around five pounds, for instance, I remembered). I walked slowly, eyes darting left and right as I moved slowly. I paused occasionally, listening.

I was made a little paranoid as, several times, I could’ve sworn I’d seen something or someone from the corner of my eye only for there to be no one when I looked. I tried to stay as calm as I could, remembering the school counselor once telling my brother and I that we should try counting backwards from ten when we were upset or angry. I wasn’t sure it’d help with panic and paranoia, but I gave it a shot anyways. I wasn’t sure how long had passed, really, but I figured that I’d be fine as soon as I made my way out towards people again.

“Lana!”

The sudden voice in the silence made me jump and whirl around, pointing the bow—only to freeze when I saw Grover. Relief flooded me as I lowered the bow, resisting the urge to sag.

“Grover! Oh, by everything good in this world am I glad to see you,” I said to him. “Please tell me that I’m not actually holding a bow and arrow and that I did not just run into a bat-like woman who called herself Megaera.”

Unfortunately for me, Grover just paled at the name.

“You ran into a Kindly-One too?!” he yelped. “You said her name! Oh, we’ve got to get you back to Chiron right now! This isn’t good!”

“Grover?” I was definitely scared now. “What’s—?”

“No time, Lana,” he shook his head. “We didn’t run into the one you saw… We thought it was only the two. She might still be around, we have to leave. Now. Sheath the arrow back in the quiver and touch the bow back to the bracelet. Chiron isn’t going to be happy you used that one, but he may have forgotten to tell you not to.”

“I pulled it without looking,” I said, feeling a flash of guilt. “I was scared.”

“I understand that, Lana,” Grover said. “He won’t be mad or disappointed, more worried that you touched it. We still don’t know why… Look, Chiron will explain, just put it away and let’s go!”

Without further prompting, I followed Grover’s instructions and put away the arrow. I touched the bow to the bracelet, watching with shocked awe as it shrunk down into a charm and reattached to the bracelet. Shaking my head, I tried to ignore how weird it felt to have the quiver just... _vanish_ from my back. Now I knew what the charm I hadn’t known the feeling of was, though—a quiver charm. Apparently it just activated on it’s own and didn’t need to be pulled, which I tried not to think about.

I followed close behind Grover, still in shock over everything that had happened now that I was safe. I didn’t even question what Grover said about getting back to ‘Chiron’ (mentor of Greek Heroes, my mind supplied, a centaur) as we went, knowing I just needed to follow Grover. I hardly registered that he didn’t have his crutches and, while walking like every step hurt him, was still walking just fine. The sudden sound of thunder startled me as we exited the building into the pouring rain.

The first thing I noticed was that it was just me, Nico, Percy, Grover, and Mr. Brunner. Mr. Brunner looked pale, but relieved when he spotted us as Grover led me over to them.

“Lana, why didn’t you do what I asked you?” he asked me, his eyes checking me over for injuries.

“I couldn’t shake...I couldn’t shake the thought that something was wrong,” I admitted. “Fifteen minutes… The way you and Grover reacted… I was worried.”

He sighed, as if he had expected that answer, and nodded. “Please, Lana, next time stay put if you’re told to,” he said. “You could’ve gotten hurt, or worse.”

I winced, thinking of Megaera. The image of myself, dead on the floor and disemboweled, flashed through my mind vividly and I barely stopped myself from flinching. I tried to banish the thought from my mind, but the grisly image did not fade and only added Percy and Nico in similar states to it, renewing my sense of fear. I tried to keep it from showing.

“There was another Kindly-One, sir,” Grover said softly. “The third one was here… Lana somehow got away from her, without killing her.”

“I heard a yelp,” I muttered. “Then she was gone. I’m not sure what happened. I didn’t look back.”

“Someone saw fit to aide you,” Mr. Brunner murmured. “We must be thankful. You two must have had a protector nearby, then, other than Grover. I am not surprised, not with Percy’s water displays over the past year as discrete as they’ve mostly been.”

“Water displays?” I ask, confused.

“Using water fountains half asleep that are supposed to be out of water,” Nico supplied helpfully. “You’ve done it too. I didn’t mention it, but they wouldn’t work for me or anyone else. Just you two. I didn’t want to freak you guys out.”

“Weren’t _you_ freaked out?”

“The first three times, I guess. Then I remembered the stories you two told me and figured that may as well have been normal for you two,” Nico shrugged. He seemed to be taking this whole thing better than me. Percy looked like he was still in shock himself, quiet and staring at the ground with unseeing eyes. Nico was holding Percy by the hand in silent support.

“We have to go,” Mr. Brunner sighed. “I had contact with Mrs. Jackson at the start of the school year...she knew I was looking over you two with Grover. Grover, you will take the twins back to their mother and explain what happened. I will take Mr. di Angelo back to camp for now, as he has no one for us to contact.”

“Yes, sir.”

I frowned. “When will _we_ get the explanation for whatever the fuck—”

“Lana! Language!” Grover yelped.

I ignored him, “—just fucking happened here?”

Mr. Brunner sighed once more, this time rubbing his face. “When you come to camp, you’ll get the full explanation. Your mother...she is one of the luckier ones of mortal parents… She knows much already, more than most do.”

I frowned at his vagueness, but bit my lip for now. I looked at Grover, who tried to smile at me. I couldn’t do much more than staring, scrutinizing.

“Where are your crutches?”

“Part of the explanation,” Grover winced. “I know it’s not a good thing to pretend to be disabled, but it was the best we had to go with.”

“The explanation better be a _good_ one, Underwood.”

“It is,” Grover promised, before muttering, “I just don’t know if you two will believe me.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know that I can articulate just how proud I am of myself and this chapter. In the google doc, it was 24 and 1/3 pages long and damn if that isn't the most I've written in literal years of purely my own content. I hope those of you who choose to give this story a shot enjoyed it and Lana's perspective so far!


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